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Sheldon Adelson is a wealthy casino magnate known for his large, influential political contributions, his efforts to impact U.S. foreign policy discourse particularly among Republicans, and his ownership and ideological direction of media outlets.

Sam Brownback—Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom under President Trump, former governor of Kansas, and U.S. Senator—is a leading social conservative as well as an outspoken “pro-Israel” hawk on U.S. Middle East policy.

Donald Trump, the real estate mogul and 45th president of the United States, is known for his racist and reactionary rhetoric, in addition to his lack of knowldege about nuclear weapons strategy, Middle East conflicts, and the value of allies.

David Albright is the founder of the Institute for Science and International Security, a non-proliferation think tank whose influential analyses of nuclear proliferation issues in the Middle East have been the source of intense disagreement and debate.

A “non-partisan” policy institute that purports to defend democracies from “militant Islamism,” the neoconservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is an influential base of hawkish advocacy on Middle East policy.

Michael Flynn is a former Trump administration National Security Advisor who was forced to step down only weeks on the job because of his controversial contacts with Russian officials before Trump took office.

David Addington, who helped author the “torture memos” and other controversial legal documents while serving as an aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, left the right-wing Heritage Foundation to become VP and general counsel for the National Federation of Independent Business, a business lobby.

Former Sen. Jim Talent (R-MO), a stalwart advocate of Pentagon spending now based at the right-wing Heritage Foundation, says he would have voted for the Iraq War even if he had known the Bush administration’s claims about WMDs were false.

Frank Gaffney, director of the hardline neoconservative Center for Security Policy, is a longtime advocate of aggressive U.S. foreign policies, bloated military budgets, and confrontation with the Islamic world.

Christians United for Israel, a Christian Zionist organization that promotes the idea that Christians “have a biblical obligation to defend Israel,” supports Israeli settlements, opposes a two-state solution, and pushes militarist U.S. policies in the Middle East.

Elliott Abrams is an ideological neoconservative based at the Council on Foreign Relations whose track record includes a criminal conviction for lying to Congress during the Reagan-era Iran-Contra affair.

A former adviser to President George W. Bush, Wehner has used his perch at the neoconservative Ethics and Public Policy Center to promote militarist U.S. foreign policies and a conservative Christian domestic agenda.

Dinesh D’Souza is a conservative writer and conspiracy theorist whose books and films have gained notoriety for their diatribes about the “culture wars” and fear-mongering narratives about liberals. D’Souza is also well known for his 2014 conviction on federal charges related to an illegal campaign fundraising scheme.

Paul Wolfowitz, a visiting fellow at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute, is a controversial former World Bank chief and Pentagon official who was closely involved in the decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

Natan Sharansky is a former Soviet dissident and Likud Party official in Israel whose hardline ideas about Middle East peace have been championed by neoconservatives and other rightist political actors in the United States.

Jamie Fly, a former adviser to the George W. Bush administration, was the executive director of the neoconservative Foreign Policy Initiative before being tapped by Sen. Marco Rubio to be his “counselor for foreign and national security affairs.”

The Washington-based American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research has been a leading member of the neoconservative advocacy community for several decades, hosting a bevy of Iraq War architects and former Bush administration officials.

A writer for The Atlantic who served in the Israeli military, Goldberg’s publications have often appeared to bolster hawkish U.S. policies in the Middle East, particularly with respect to Iran and Iraq.

The International Assessment and Strategy Center (IASC) is a rightist think tank that purports to focus on “medium and long-term security issues and their impact on the security of the United States and her key interests and allies.”

Retired Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely is a former military analyst for Fox News who promotes outlandish conspiracies about President Obama and has expressed a desire to lead a coup against the U.S. government.

Joshua Muravchik, a neoconservative ideologue based at the School of Advanced International Studies, has longed pushed for U.S.-led wars in the Middle East and has a track record attacking people who criticize Israel.

President of the neoconservative advocacy group Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former New York Times correspondent, Cliff May has been a persistent advocate of hawkish U.S. policies toward Iran and an Israel-centric view of the Middle East.

Richard Perle, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former adviser to various Republican administrations, is widely considered a core representative of the neoconservative political faction.

Eric Edelman, undersecretary for defense in the George W. Bush administration and a board member of the neoconservative Foreign Policy Initiative, has long been associated with hawkish factions in U.S. politics, advising the likes of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Mitt Romney.

Leon Wieseltier, a columnist at the Atlantic and the former literary editor of the New Republic, is a harsh critic of Obama administration’s Middle East policy and has frequently pushed for U.S. military intervention in the Middle East.

A former Bush administration foreign policy adviser, Michael Doran is a fellow at the neoconservative Hudson Institute who has promoted U.S. “regime change” strategies for a host of countries in the Middle East.

A former Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren is a rightist politician in Israel who has promoted extremist views regarding Middle East affairs, U.S. politicians, and Jewish Americans.

Dennis Ross is a former Obama administration official and current fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who has praised President Trump’s words against Iran but has called for much stronger action against the Islamic Republic.

Charles “Chuck” Wald is a member and former chairman of the board of directors of the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), a policy advocacy organization that has a reputation of supporting hawkish security and defense policies, particularly with respect to Iran.

Members of the Reagan-era Council for National Policy continue to help shape the U.S. political landscape even as the rightwing group maintains a cloak of secrecy over its activities and membership rolls.

Ashton Carter, an academic and longtime Pentagon bureaucrat who served as deputy secretary of defense in the Barack Obama administration, has a history of supporting controversial counter-proliferation proposals.

Since leaving office in the midst of the unpopular Iraq War, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has periodically reemerged to champion torture, defense appropriations, and an expansive war on terror.

Previously a special assistant to President George W. Bush, Meghan O’Sullivan is a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government who argues that sanctions aren’t aggressive enough to achieve change in the Middle East.

Zuhdi Jasser, a physician and devout Muslim connected to various neoconservative groups, founded the American Islamic Forum for Democracy and has helped produced several controversial anti-Islamist films.

A controversial activist group closely connected to anti-Islamic and “pro-Israel” political factions, the Clarion Project has released films and publications that attack “Radical Islam” and call into question the trustworthiness of Muslims.

The brainchild of Sears-Roebuck heiress Nina Rosenwald, the Gatestone Institute is a New York-based advocacy organization that is tied to neoconservative and other right-wing networks in the United States and Europe.

Stephen Rademaker, a lobbyist and lawyer who served as an assistant secretary of state in the George W. Bush administration, is a project adviser at the hawkish Bipartisan Policy Center and a principal of the Podesta Group.

A former Pentagon official whose office generated faulty information that was used to push the United States toward war with Iraq, Feith is now at the neoconservative Hudson Institute, where he advocates hawkish strategic weapons policies.

Devon Gaffney Cross, a longstanding neoconservative activist, has reemerged as a supporter of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s presidential campaign and member of the heavily criticized advocacy group Secure America Now.

A “pro-Israel” hawk and former Dick Cheney adviser who once championed taking the “war on terror” to Latin America, David Wurmser now promotes Israeli natural gas interests and supports a strike on Iran.

Tanter, founder of the hawkish Iran Policy Committee, is an ardent support of the controversial Mujahedin-e Khalq, an Iranian opposition group that was listed by the State Department as a terrorist organization.

Marc Thiessen, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, is a Washington Post columnist and American Enterprise Institute visiting fellow known for his defense of hawkish U.S. security and defense policies, including “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

Chris Griffin, the executive director of the neoconservative Foreign Policy Initiative, has also worked as a legislative director for Sen. Joe Lieberman and as a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

A go-to security policy think tank for the Obama administration, the Center for a New American Security’s staff includes a host counterinsurgency enthusiasts, some of whom have supported neoconservative-led policy campaigns.

A foreign policy hawk known for his work shaping the 2007 Iraq “surge,” AEI fellow Frederick Kagan has authored numerous books and reports promoting long-term U.S. military intervention in the Middle East and Central Asia.

A decorated retired general credited with helping conceive the Iraq “surge,” Jack Keane has used his military experience to turn a profit in the private sector—most recently as a senior adviser to Academi LLC, the latest incarnation of the notorious Blackwater Worldwide.

A dual U.S.-Israeli citizen who advocates a “credible” U.S. military threat against Iran, Michael Makovsky is the CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, a “pro-Israel” policy group that specializes in encouraging military-to-military ties between the United States and Israel.

Midge Decter, a controversial writer and activist who is a member of the influential neoconservative Podhoretz family, is known for her diatribes against feminism as well her hawkish foreign policy views.

A contributor to the right-wing WorldNetDaily who is fond of touting his off-road driving abilities, F. Michael Maloof is perhaps best known for his alleged role in helping produce faulty intelligence while working at the Pentagon’s notorious Office of Special Plans.

Bruce Jackson is an erstwhile military intelligence officer and defense industry executive with a long track record advancing hawkish U.S. defense policies and supporting neoconservative campaigns, with a particular focus on the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Ruth Wedgwood, an international law scholar based at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and vice chair of the neoconservative Freedom House, is a staunch defender of the “war on terror” and a proponent of a right-wing “pro-Israel” U.S. foreign policy.

Gertrude Himmelfarb, widow of the late neoconservative trailblazer Irving Kristol and mother of Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, is a conservative historian who has prescribed Victorian notions of morality as an antidote to a host of social ills.

Kathleen Bailey is a former U.S. arms control official and a senior associate at the National Institute for Public Policy, a hawkish think tank based in Washington, D.C, that has been home to a number of outspoken proponents of aggressive U.S. strategic weapons policies.

Steven J. Rosen, who directs the Washington Program at the neoconservative Middle East Forum, is a former pioneering AIPAC lobbyist who was indicted for allegedly passing Pentagon secrets to the Israeli government.

Bernard Lewis is a renowned historian of Islam and the Middle East who has long stirred controversy with his at times chauvinistic attitude towards the Muslim world and his associations with high-profile neoconservatives and foreign policy hawks.

Akbar Atri, an exiled Iranian-American activist and a self-appointed spokesman for the Iranian student movement, has affiliated himself with several neoconservative pressure groups pushing regime change in Iran.

Josh Block, a self-described progressive Democrat who gained notoriety for accusing Democratic critics of Israel of “borderline anti-Semitism,” now helms The Israel Project, a neoconservative-leaning lobby group that pushes a hard line on the Middle East.

Mark Gerson, author of the 1996 book The Neoconservative Vision, an oft-cited sycophantic book about the roots and trajectory of the political faction, is CEO of Gerson Lehrman Group, a consulting firm of global experts.

Elizabeth O’Bagy is a research analyst based at the neoconservative Institute for the Study of War who has also worked as the political director of a pro-intervention group linked to the Syrian rebels.

Richard Pipes, a Polish-American historian of Russia and Communism at Harvard University, was a key anti-Soviet crusader in the 1970s and 1980s who has since advocated bringing Russia into the “Western” fold.

The Bipartisan Coalition for American Security is a nonprofit advocacy group founded to promote American “global leadership,” a robust U.S. defense budget, and an active and interventionist U.S. foreign policy.

The Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that monitors security trends from Eurasia to Africa, has been dogged by allegations that it secretly works with the CIA and allied governments.

The Jerusalem Summit is an Israel-based advocacy outfit that has brought together Evangelical Christians, neoconservatives, and hardline pro-Israel figures from across the globe in an effort to shape the debate over the status of Palestine.

The American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus is an alliance of neoconservatives, liberal hawks, and peace activists working toward greater autonomy in the Caucasus, primarily with an eye to weakening Russia for U.S. strategic benefit.

Will Marshall, cofounder of the Democratic Leadership Council (and head of the Progressive Policy Institute, has been a leading advocate for a more hawkish and “market-friendly” Democratic Party for decades.

An important proponent of counterinsurgency, John Nagl was president of the Center for a New American Security, an influential inside-the-beltway think tank with close ties to the Obama administration and neoconservatives.

Marshall Wittmann, spokesperson for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, is a political operative in Washington, D.C. who has long been associated with militarist and “pro-Israel” factions connected to both the Republican and Democratic Parties.

From its support for Salvadoran death squads to its enthusiasm for sanctions on Iran and an aggressive “war on terror,” the American Foreign Policy Council has pushed a hawkish agenda on foreign affairs since its founding in 1982.

The ongoing crisis in Syria has become a litmus test for Bush-era neoconservatives, as well as the larger interventionist coalition that pushed for the Iraq War under the banner of the Project for the New American Century. Just as we saw during the years preceding the invasion of Iraq, the emergence of a pro-intervention coalition is occurring in the absence of a serious discussion about the complexity of the circumstances surrounding Syria’s spiraling civil war, the challenges inherent in any outside military engagement, and the dangers of a zero-sum approach to the conflict.

Patrick Clawson is director of research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a spin-off of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that is known for promoting hawkish U.S. policies in the Middle East.

A former World Bank president, George W. Bush administration trade representative, and supporter of the Project for the New American Century, Zoellick is now a senior fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center.

President Reagan’s Pentagon chief and an alleged conspirator in the assassination of former DRC Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, Frank Carlucci now serves as an attack dog for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

As pressure mounts to arm rebels in Syria, there is need for a sober assessment of the costs and consequences of the increasing militarization of the conflict there. If history is any guide, a foreign-backed armed rebellion will likely not produce the kind of victory—or engender the kind of support—that the anti-Assad fighters will require to usher in a new Syria. Additionally, there is the very real possibility that many of the rebels—as we’ve seen in Libya—will turn out to be little better than the regime they seek to replace.

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Sheldon Adelson is a wealthy casino magnate known for his large, influential political contributions, his efforts to impact U.S. foreign policy discourse particularly among Republicans, and his ownership and ideological direction of media outlets.

Sam Brownback—Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom under President Trump, former governor of Kansas, and U.S. Senator—is a leading social conservative as well as an outspoken “pro-Israel” hawk on U.S. Middle East policy.

Donald Trump, the real estate mogul and 45th president of the United States, is known for his racist and reactionary rhetoric, in addition to his lack of knowldege about nuclear weapons strategy, Middle East conflicts, and the value of allies.

U.S. Defense Secretary James “Mad Dog” Mattis is a retired U.S Marine Corps general and combat veteran who served as commander of U.S. Central Command during 2010-2013 before being removed by the Obama administration reportedly because of differences over Iran policy.

From the Wires

The usual neocon suspects, including at the American Enterprise Institute and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, are making a concerted effort to push the Trump administration into military conflict with Iran.